Book Reviews

A Kept Mate (Mate for Sale 2) by Marcy Jacks at Siren Publishing

Genre

Gay / Paranormal / Shifters / MPreg / Erotic Romance

Reviewed by

Christy Duke on 18-March-2017

Book Blurb

Poor and forced to sell his body, Andy Lapin is still settling into his new life as the mate of a multi-millionaire alpha—an alpha who seems to love and adore everything Andy does, and who also regrets getting Andy pregnant.

When Vaughn first met his red-headed mate, he just wanted to pay the man so Andy could carry his young. Only humans can carry shifter children, but the risk to their lives is great. When it turned out that Andy was Vaughn's true mate, Vaughn has spent every day since dreading the coming birth of his own children.

Sometimes, Andy has no time to think about the coming birth. He quickly learns that being mated to a millionaire comes with its own challenges, including nasty relatives and jealous people out to ruin his happiness.

The stress of such a strange new life might bring Andy's pups into the world before either he or Vaughn is ready for them.

Book Review

I was very excited to return to the world in the 'Mate for Sale' series by Marcy Jacks. Even better was the fact that the second installment continues the story of Andy and Vaughn. I would not have been happy if I'd missed out on the birth! Plus, given the opportunity to watch Vaughn squirm made this even more appealing to me.

In this world, only humans can carry shifter children, so a shifter enters into a temporary mating with a human, and once the pups are born (assuming the human lives through it) then the mating bonds are dissolved and each party goes their separate way. The shifter gets the pups (heirs) they want, and the human gets the agreed upon sum of money. In order to instigate a mating heat, the shifter gives the human some of their blood, which begins the process for both of them. In a natural mating (which is very rare) the mating pull and heat are there the instant the two meet. That's what happened between Andy and Vaughn, although Vaughn didn't realize it for a while.

I had to giggle at poor Andy's frustration. He is quite far in his pregnancy - he's carrying three pups - and he's frustrated. Vaughn refuses to touch him and when he does it's with this hesitancy that drives Andy nuts. Vaughn isn't backing down, even though the doctors said they could have sex right up until the birth. Vaughn is too terrified of hurting Andy and losing him during the birth. See why I was giggling? Andy is a frustrated, very hormonal young man, and I had a bad feeling he had some tricks up his sleeve. It wasn't good when his idea came back and almost bit him on the rump.

Family. Ugh. Sometimes the one you're born into can be a bigger pain than the one you make. Both Vaughn's brother, Ervin, and Andy's stepbrother are causing all kinds of stress and unease on both Vaughn and Andy. Ervin is a spoiled second child who believes he should be alpha and the house and land should belong to him. Wah, wah, wah. Andy's stepbrother just wants money even though he's the jerk who falsely accused Andy of theft and had Andy sent to the institution where he was sold to Vaughn. I was hoping the author would give some resolution to this but perhaps in a future installment.

A very appealing dramatic finale to Andy and Vaughn's story. I'm not telling what happened, but I liked the way the author handled the birth. I would have loved a little more past that but I'll just have to wait to get a glimpse of these guys in future reads.

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by the author for the purpose of a review.

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